Festival highlights national unity

Water taken from the country’s northern, central and southern parts was poured into the Ben Hai river at a ceremony in central Quang Tri province on April 30 as a symbol of the desire and resolve to maintain territorial integrity and national unification of all Vietnamese people.
The Ben Hai river was selected as a temporary demarcation line separating the country into the North and the South under the Geneva Agreement on Vietnam signed in 1954.
The ceremony was part of the National Reunification Festival held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Quang Tri provincial People’s Committee to mark the 35th anniversary of the liberation of southern Vietnam and national reunification, the 38th anniversary of Quang Tri’s liberation and the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.
Addressing the festival, To Huy Rua, Politburo member and Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Head of its Commission for Information and Education, said the festival was an opportunity for all Party, army and people to pay tribute to fallen combatants, who had devoted their lives for national defence and construction, as well as a chance to uphold the nation’s tradition.
“Vietnam is one country, one nation. Rivers may run dry, mountains may crumble, but this truth will never change,” Rua quoted the late President Ho Chi Minh’s saying in his speech.